A Confession
I have two confessions. One is counterculture, the other is counter-counterculture.
>Clippy
Everyone knows Clippy, the dancing paperclip in Microsoft Office. Spawn of MS Bob. He is despised by all…except for me. I do not hate Clippy. Yes, it’s too hard to make him go away forever (a simple “deactivate” added to his menu would solve that.) Yes, he sometimes explains too trivial of tasks; but I realized that he is close to what I want in a software system, personal agents.
I do want something that watches me delete every email from eBay, and then automatically start deleting them for me. I do want something that can learn my scheduling preferences and then (re)schedule meetings for me. This is what I want, and Clippy is the first step. Hell, I’ve even thought about making my own open source version of MS Agent, to develop theses things.
The Gap
Counterculture says I should hate The Gap, and for awhile I did, without question. Then this month I went in to one and I thought, “Why am I supposed to hate this? I know why I hate Abercrombie & Fitch, Areospatial, American Eagle, et cetra. Everything they sell has their logo on it. (Except for Hollister. I don’t know if they only sell logowear. I’ve never gone in. I hate them because their pretentious. They have closed off stores with “bouncers” out front along with a girl with a clipboard, like it’s some sort of “exclusive” store where only can only shop if you are on The List. It’s in a mall. How elite, could it be?) These store’s shirts either have a simple advertisement, or something stupid like ‘Abercrombie High School Panthers’, ‘Ambercrombie Soccer’, or ‘A & E Dry Cleaning’. Why should I pay to be a billboard for them? But The Gap isn’t like that. Most of their clothes are logoless solids. I get a shirt, and that’s it. I am no one’s viral marketting vector.
Yes I am moderately distrubed, by The Gap’s many incarnations. The Gap™, Gap Kids™, Baby Gap™, Gap Adult™, Pet Gap™, etc. Yes, they paid 15¢ to Guadalupe in a Salvadoran sweatshop (or is it Li Faung in a Chinese prison?) and then turn around and sell it for $20. Yes, the clothes are overpriced for what they are, but let’s be honest. What clothing company doesn’t do that?
